This invention generally relates to accounting; and, more specifically, the invention relates to the use of computer displays having accounting information embedded therein.
There are many separate applications to satisfy the many facets and aspects of accounting. It would be highly advantageous to have a single application which enables the display of the broad array of aspects.
An aspect of this invention is to provide a displayable tree configuration for each of a plurality of accounting aspects.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a displayable tree configuration having a plurality of nodes, and to embed in each node levels of information useful for a specific accounting aspect or attributes.
These and other aspects are attained with a method and system for providing multilevel information about aspects of accounting. The method comprises the steps of generating a display, on a computer display screen, of a tree having a plurality of nodes, and embedding in the nodes information about said accounting aspects. For example, trees may be generated that represent credit, debit, revenue, expense, credit and/or debit plans, credit or debit thresholds, assets (cash, investments, receivables), inventory costing and control, short term and/or long term liabilities (stocks, bonds, mortgage notes), stockholders (equity, dividends, cost basis, restrictions, donations), working capital, cash flow (income statement, operations, earnings, forecast, historical data), customer data, manufacturing costs (processing, target), profit (product, division), taxes (income, sales, real estate, etc.).
Information may be embedded with a matrix approach. As an example, matrices may be used that contain cost accounting information for a catalog of elements of products with a catalog of subsystems. Matrices may be used that provide particular bookkeeping and accounting requirements, and matrices may be used that represent corporate accounting firms.
Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description, given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention.